Chapter 5. Strange Delusions
I groan in pain as I sit up. Part of my mind registers voices all around me, but I barely notice them. I lift my hand up and notice some dried blood on the back of my hand. What the hell happened?
"He's awake," a soft and concerned female voice says.
"Thank god," a male voice replies.
Slowly opening my eyes I take in my surroundings. Everything is ridiculously bright and loud as if I had a migraine. Most everything is white or a pale blue. Sitting up I notice that I'm in an enclosed room.
A smell similar to antiseptic reaches my nose and overwhelms me. I start to sneeze and cough to get the smell to go away, but it doesn't. I find this a little strange since every other time I've been in a hospital, which I'm guessing is where I am, the metallic scent was never that repulsive.
"What happened," I mumble.
"Oh honey," Mom squeals and hugs me. "We were so scared that you were going to be stuck in a coma for a long time."
"What happened," I repeat.
"We got a call from the nurse saying you were found passed out in the back of the school. None of your friends knew what happened," Dad answers.
"How long have I been out?" I ask remembering Mom said she was afraid I wasn't going to wake up.
"Two days."
Two days! What the hell! Did I get hit that hard? I thought that I won. Before I can think about what happened any longer another voice starts calling my name and suddenly a little body jumps on me.
"Sarah be careful, your brother is injured!"
"Matt are you okay, I thought you had died," she cries.
"I'm okay Sarah I," I assure her.
Mom and Dad start talking to the doctor who just walked in and I let them be as they talk about getting me out of here. I think I love my doctor who says I can leave later today. As they talk my head starts to pound and my vision gets blurry.
I am no longer in the hospital bed, but staring down onto it glancing down at a boy a little younger than me who looks familiar. A feeling of sadness and guilt hit me as I stare down at him. The figure next to me, who is giving me the creeps, takes out a small vile and drinks it before biting the boy on the bed.
A colorful and gigantic spider is sitting on the boy's head and with a blink of an eye I'm back in bed. Mom looks down at me and smiles as the nurse takes my blood pressure.
What just happened? I decide it was probably a good idea not to mention it since more than anything I did want to go home and get back to school before this entire event becomes even more embarrassing. But it was still incredibly weird. Why the hell was I randomly having visions of people I have never met? And why did it seem so fucking real?
Overall I felt incredibly confused. It must have been the medicine, I repeat over and over again. Yeah that would make sense. At least I think it made sense. I didn't even know if I was on any meds. But I'm guessing I would be.
I wake up early the next morning and spend a lot more time than I ever had on getting ready in the morning. There was no way I was going to go to school and seem like a wimp in front of everyone. My bruised face would do that well enough by itself.
My parents had profusely tried to convince me to stay home and take it easy for a day or two, but I refused. As strange as it sounds I just wanted to get back to school and make this strange nightmare end. It would help ease the weird vibes I kept getting.
I walk downstairs and Mom is waiting for me with breakfast. She puts waffles and bacon on my plate and pours me some OJ. Dad comes over and hands me my medicine. A bunch of pain killers, headache pills, and antibiotics. It makes me feel like an old man, but at least I didn't feel anything.
Since I was injured and all, Mom drove me to school so I didn't have to ride the bus. She dropped me off and handed me a doctor's note to get out of gym. She didn't need to know that I had no intentions on giving the note to Coach; I wasn't going to pretend I couldn't do anything when I was fine.
Walking into bio felt kind of weird since people were looking at me strangely. Ignoring them I sit next to Madison. She looks at my face and shoots me a sympathetic look. I shrug at her and turn my attention to the front of the room.
"So Mr. Nash is back?" Ms. Tall laughs. "Glad you could join us. Today we are doing a frog dissection. Split up into groups of two and follow the directions on the sheets provided. Madison grabs me and takes me over to a lab station.
We start the dissection and my head throbs. Damn I thought the meds were supposed to work. Following the directions we flip the frog onto its back and I look down at it in confusion.
"Madison why the hell are there stars all over the frog?"
"What do you mean?"
"The weird birthmarks that resemble stars," I tell her.
She looks at me strangely, "Whatever," she tells me and turns back to the assignment. Out of the corner of my eye I swear I see Ms. Tall smile at me mysteriously with a proud look in her eye.
Per usual Sam is messing in my locker. I glance in it and see a small banner that says Welcome Back. I give him a strange look, there has to be a trick somewhere up his sleeve. In response he just shrugs. I better watch my back before I actually get tricked by him.
"So who you feeling bro?"
"Fine," I sigh in aggravation. "I am so sick of everyone asking that. I am fine."
"Dude you were punched in the jaw and in a coma for two days."
"So, I've had worse."
"When?"
"That…" I pause. I don't know, but I know I have. "That time when I was burnt?"
"Funny Matt. So where are you taking Anna tonight?"
I don't pay any attention to what he just said as I think about why I blurted out that I was burnt. We walk onto the field and Anna comes running towards me. She squeezes me and I laugh as I return the hug.
"Nice to see you too," I chuckle.
"You had us scared Matt," she admits.
"Don't worry I'm fine."
Coach has us playing soccer today. Usually I hate soccer, it was incredibly boring. For some reason though I was really excited to play and had a feeling I'd be showing off. We get split into teams and start playing.
Something possesses me as I get into the game and I end up scoring 10 goals in the first half of class. As I get into the rhythm of the game and ignore the oddness of the situation I start actually enjoying myself. Of course that was when it started to get weird.
My vision becomes blurry again and instead of Anna's friend Emily being in goal it is some guy big enough to be a professional goalie. He smiles at me before looking at me oddly as if he recognizes me. Strange because I recognize him too even though that's impossible. It was just like that vision in the hospital.
A figure comes running on the field and takes out a gun. The shot rings out and the guy is on the ground.
Another blur and I kick the ball into the goal and see Emily miss the impossible stop.
History passes quickly as Dylan just bugs me about having to do so much work by his self and we walk to lunch and sit at our usual spot. Everyone joins us and I take out my pills.
"Damn that's a lot of meds," Sam laughs.
"Not really."
"Are you sure you're still up to going out tonight?" Anna asks with concern and all the girls giggle.
Right Anna and I have that strange date tonight. "Of course, I feel fine. Just a little bruised."
She blushes and Dylan pats me on the back, "Matt, Sam and I got you a get well soon present." He hands me a card and a box.
I give him a look of disbelief and open the box first. I gasp as I see a dildo with a note attached to it telling me to use it now that I feel better. The card says Get Well Soon Dick Face. I throw it at them and everyone laughs.
Well everyone but me. I shoot my two friends a dirty look as I hear my name over the loud speaker. Everyone gasps and tells me I am in trouble.
Upon reaching the office I see the bio sub waiting for me. "Hello Matt, may I call you Matt?"
"Um yeah," I answer awkwardly.
"It's great to see that you're doing better."
"Thanks, but I don't really know you."
She smirks, "I know but I plan on being here for a while and would like to get to know my students."
That's weird, why single me out. "Okay Ms. Tall."
"Follow me," she commands and I follow her to the biology room. She sits down and gestures for me to sit across from her. "Would you like a drink?"
"Sure, "I smile. She is a teacher and for some reason I trust her so I accept.
She reaches under the desk and hands me a tinted bottle of what I'm guessing is root beer and grabs herself a bottle of water. A frog leaps over to her and another onto her shoulder. These two have even more designs than the one in class. I swear one of them has a face on it, "Interesting birthmark," I remark.
"Isn't it?" she smiles. "Most people don't notice them or care. What does it look like to you?"
I look at it for a moment, "Shancus." Wait who?
"I think so too," she says with a frown. "Poor kid."
"Um this is going to sound weird but who is he?" I ask as I take a sip of my soda. It's flat, but really good.
"You don't know him," she asks confused.
I shake my head as the bell rings, "Sorry I have to go. Thank you for the soda."
"It's not a soda dear child," she laughs. "Take it I have no need for it.
I give her a funny look and head to my next class with an even bigger headache.
Trying to make it to Spanish I run into someone and my face hurts as I do. Glancing up I groan as I see Bill, "Loser," he coughs.
"Seriously Bill, can we just pretend nothing happened?"
"You just don't want to look like a chicken I did put you in the hospital for two days."
"As I recall he beat the shit out of you first," Lindsay calls as she walks towards us with her hand in Dylan's.
"Yet he didn't put me in a coma."
"He helped you up Bill. So stop being a douche and let him do," Dylan growls. "Or he'll do it again."
"Stop fighting guys, this is my fight. Just leave Bill."
"No," he says and pushes me.
I turn around and chug the rest of my soda. Bill pushes me again and this time I respond. The world blurs again and suddenly I am standing in what looks like a gym with an older guy who is much bigger than me. He looks at me and I stare at his one eye as he pushes me down. I jump back up and eventually land a solid punch.
Everything blurs again and Bill is on the floor in pain. I help him up and get a sudden sense of déjà vu. This time I don't let him get to me and as he tries to punch me I duck and run towards class.
Something weird is going on, I feel amazing. Maybe coach was right and somehow I'm on steroids. Can someone drug me with steroids? They must because even though I was in a coma for two days I suddenly feel stronger than ever.
As I walk to class I see a spider out of the corner of my eye.